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Static electricity around us
Where can static electricity be found in this lab scene?

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Where does static electricity occur?
What do the following familiar events have in common?
 A lightning strike.
 Dusters that attract dust.
 Crackles when combing hair.
 Cling film sticking to your hands.
 Dust being attracted to television screens.
 Clothes clinging to each other in a dryer.
 Getting a shock after rubbing your feet on
a carpet and then touching a metal object.
All these events are due to static electricity.
What causes static electricity to occur?

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What is static electricity?
Static electricity is due to the
build up of electric charge.
It is called ‘static’ electricity
because the charge is unable
to flow.
The build up of electric charge
can cause dangerous sparks.
Sometimes, after walking on
a carpet and then touching a
metal object, such as a door
knob, you might get a small
shock. This is caused by
static electricity.

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Is lightning caused by electric charge?
Lightning is an electric
discharge that occurs when
charge builds up in clouds.
The physical properties of
water enables regions of a
cloud to become positively-
or negatively-charged.
When enough charge has
built up, it will follow a path
to Earth.
This movement produces
lightning, which is simply
a big spark!

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What did Benjamin Franklin do?

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Introducing static electricity – summary

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What causes static electricity?
Static electricity is due to electric charge that builds up on
the surface of an insulator, such as a plastic comb.

The charge that has built up cannot easily flow away from
the insulator, which is why it is called static electricity.

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Where does static charge come from?
All materials are made of atoms, which contain electric
charges.
Around the outside of an
atom are electrons, which
have a negative charge.

The nucleus at the centre of

an atom contains protons,
which have a positive charge.

An atom has equal amounts of negative and positive charges,

which balance each other, so the atom has no overall charge.
Electrons do not always stay attached to atoms and can
sometimes be removed by rubbing.

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How does static charge build up?
Static charge can build up when
two insulating materials are rubbed
together, such as a plastic comb
moving through hair.

Friction between the materials

causes electrons to be transferred
from one material to the other:

 One material ends up with more electrons,

so it now has an overall negative charge.

 One material ends up with fewer electrons,

so it now has an overall positive charge.

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How can static charge be created?
Friction can be used to create a static charge.
If an insulator is rubbed with a cloth, it can become charged
in one of two ways:

Electrons move from Electrons move from

OR
the cloth to the insulator. the insulator to the cloth.

The insulator ends up with The insulator ends up with

an overall negative charge. an overall positive charge.

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Charging materials

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Static charge – true or false?

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How can static charge be detected?
A gold leaf electroscope can be used to detect charge.
An electroscope consists of an earthed
metal case, inside which a metal rod is
connected to a metal plate.
A piece of gold leaf is attached to the
other end of the metal rod.
When the metal plate becomes charged,
the charge spreads out through the
metal rod and the gold leaf.
The metal rod and the gold leaf gain
the same charge, so the thin gold leaf
is repelled from the rod and sticks out.

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What is a Van de Graaff generator?
A Van de Graaff generator is a machine used to build up
static charge.
It was invented in 1931 by
Robert Jemison Van de
Graaff, an American physicist.
This machine uses the
simple principle of rubbing
insulating materials to build
up a supply of charged
particles.
The generator can produce very high voltages and
was first used to help scientists study the behaviour
of subatomic particles.

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‘Van de Graaff’ generator

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What are the forces between charges?
The forces between charges
can be investigated using rods
made of insulating materials. acetate rods
What happens when two
positively-charged acetate
rods are placed near each
other?
The rods repel each other
because they have the same
overall charge.
What will happen if one rod
is replaced with a charged rods repel
polythene rod? each other

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How do opposite charges behave?
When a charged acetate
rod is placed near a polythene acetate
charged polythene rod, rod rod
the rods attract each other.
Why does this happen?
The polythene rod has an
overall positive charge and
the acetate rod has an
overall negative charge.
The overall charges of
these rods are opposite
and so they attract each rods attract
other. each other

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Investigating pairs of charges

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Experimenting with static charge

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How can static electricity be used?
Static electricity has many uses, including:

 photocopiers
and laser
printers

 spray painting cars

 filtering
factory
smoke

 heart
defibrillators

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How does a photocopier work?

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What happens in a photocopier?

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How does spray painting cars work?

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How does static charge reduce pollution?

A precipitator in the chimney of a power station uses

static electricity to filter smoke particles from waste gases.
The smoke particles pass positively-
through a charged grid and charged
pick up a negative charge. metal
plates
They are then attracted
to the positively-charged
collecting plates. smoke
particles
The smoke particles lose
their charge and fall back metal grid
down the chimney, so the at a high
waste gases emitted are voltage
free of polluting smoke.

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How does a defibrillator work?
A defibrillator is a machine
that uses electricity to correct
faulty heart rhythms.
Fibrillation is an irregular
heart rhythm, often brought
on by a heart attack.
The metal pads of the
defibrillator are placed
on the patient’s chest
and then charged.
This sends a controlled
shock to the patient, which
corrects the heart rhythm.

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Uses of static electricity – summary

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What are the dangers of static electricity?
A build up of charge can
produce sparks, which may
lead to explosions and fire.
Charge builds up when two
insulators are rubbed together.
This can occur when refuelling
aircraft, when rolling paper in
paper mills, and on grain
shoots in grain stores.
In paper mills, metal rollers are used to prevent the build up
of charge. Metal grain shoots prevent fires in grain stores.
Any charge is conducted away by the metal.
How can explosions be prevented when refuelling aircraft?

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How are planes refuelled safely?
A build up of static charge
when refuelling a plane
could cause an explosion.
This can be prevented by
joining the delivery tanker
and the fuel tank electrically
with a metal wire.
The wire provides a path for
electricity to flow along, and
so prevents the build up of metal wire
any potentially dangerous
static charge.

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Static electricity – useful or a problem?

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 Glossary
 attraction – The force between two objects with
opposite overall charges, which pulls them together.
 insulator – A material that does not conduct electricity.
 lightning – A natural phenomenon that occurs because
of a build up of charge in storm clouds.
 repulsion – The force between two objects with the
same overall charge, which pushes them apart.
 static charge – The build up of electric charge due to
friction between objects.
 Van de Graaff generator – A scientific instrument that
can be used to generate large quantities of charge.

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Anagrams

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Multiple-choice quiz

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